Description
Scale armour was common throughout the cultures of the ancient world. As the name suggests, it looked like fish scales, and was made from overlapping rows of small scale-shaped plates, attached to one another or to a backing layer of leather or padding. Scale armour was flexible and relatively easy to produce. Depending on local resources, all kinds of scales were made, including bronze, iron, leather, and hide, with horn being the most common. Because it was made from smaller pieces woven together, scale armour could be easily repaired. Before the Marian Reforms of 104BC, Republican Romans used the 'lorica squamata', a shirt of metal scales sewn onto a fabric backing. Cavalry also made use of scale armour: Scythian, Sarmatian and Parthian cataphracts were covered from head to toe in scale armour, as were their mounts.
